Rating: 
Summary: Polemic posing as sci-fi
Review: ... a fantasy where techo-magic can uninvent firearms and, when the Great and the Good wave that wand, people decide to love each other and study war no more. The gun controllers get all the good lines and the Other Side is composed of scary, evil leaders and ordinary gun owners who are their useful idiots. The book is set in the near future with electronic technologies that are somewhat plausible, but without the personality alteration technology that would be needed to actually make it work.To review, researchers accidentally discover a device which can detonate explosives and ammunition remotely (the Trigger). Later on, they discover that this is only one aspect of a more powerful technology that allows them to change the chemical structure of matter from a distance and with precision. The immediate application that they seize on is to disable firearms and explosives. Much ink is expended on the political fallout from this, and how it will make the world a better place. What is glaring to me is what is missed: these supposedly smart people don't notice that firearms and explosives can still work with minor redesign. They focus on the more capable technology only as a way to uninvent the gun even more thoroughly (the Jammer) - no one notices that it makes weapons possible that are far more deadly than guns. For example, if you can turn nitrocellulose back into inert cotton by pointing a ray emitter at it, why can't you turn all the proteins in a man's body back into individual amino acids? Answer, you can, and the victim would collapse instantly into a puddle of goo. This occurs to none of the characters. Instead, they reinvent Medeival weaponcraft - the crossbow and the quarterstaff - but somehow forget about the sword, the mace, and the halbard. This allows the Good Guys to win battles without spilling blood - luckily, they don't have to fight anyone who actually knows how. Plus, there are far too many long, preachy passages that would fit better into a Handgun Control Inc broadsheet than into a sci-fi novel people are expected to pay their own money for and then read for entertainment. Bottom line, some people will like this book, some will hate it, and most will find it boring. If you know someone who has a "Beyond War" bumpersticker and wants Charles Schumer to run for President, then this book would make a great gift. If you value the right to self-defense, this book will not be good for your blood pressure. If you are looking for good sci-fi, where the initial premise is worked out carefully and logically and with respect for the reader's intelligence, look somewhere else.
Rating: 
Summary: A great read, similar to a Frank Herbert short story
Review: A great book which instantly reminded me of a short story by Frank Herbert ("Dune" series), called "Ceasefire". Both stories share a similar premise, contemplating the inevitable paradigmatic shift that will come with this (un)earth-shattering development. From Ceasefire: "War will never be eliminated, battles instead being fought with horse cavalry, swords, crossbows & lances...augmented with modern innovations; poison gases, curarae-tipped crossbow bolts, bacteria...espionage, poison gas, germ warfare - all of these become a necessity! Violence is a part of human life. The lust for power is a part of human life. As long as people want power badly enough, they'll use any means to get it-fair or foul! Peaceful or otherwise!" At the conclusion of Herbert's story, a general hands to the inventor of the new technology a book: "The next generation will need to understand this", it being a copy of the works of Niccolo Machiavelli!
The Clarke collaboration is a heated, thrilling tale well worth the money I spent on it. Thought-provoking, intelligent, the only downside for me was its excessive length. Give it a go!
Rating:
Summary: Clarke & Baxter at the top of their game
Review: A group of scientists given free reign to explore their heart's desires are attempting to devise a tractor beam when they accidentally stumble upon emission of a field that detonates all explosives. The story tracks the political intrigue surrounding a discovery that will rewrite modern warfare, and the scientific refinements that play into this intrigue. Eventually, the Trigger gives way to the Jammer, which renders explosives useless without detonating them. Everyone seems happy with the exception of military warhawks, and domestic militia and gun rights advocates, who scheme in various ways to blunt the spread of the devices. In the chilling conclusion, a further refinement to the technology gives the controller the ability to kill any creature whose DNA is on file.
The Good and the Bad:
This is perhaps the best Arthur C. Clarke book I've read, with the possible exception of 2001, and I'm only saying that because 2001 is so famous. Clarke's vision of the science and the potential cultural impacts is apparent throughout, and that is completely entertaining. He's also somehow successfully integrated a lot of social-benefit philosophical arguments into the dialogue without it appearing to be too contrived, and that is entertaining. The attention to detail when presenting the inner workings of the scientist's lab and, especially, the military, are entertaining. I suspect his writing partner had a lot to do with the humanity of the characters; unlike his previous novels, this one read like a mainstream political thriller, and things like a love story were handled with a professional touch so that they didn't intrude on the storyline. All of those things were so well done that the book was a joy to read.
The drawbacks, however, were all the more glaring in this context. The gun advocates are all shown to be crazy and delusional by the end of the novel, resorting to murder in the face of a losing battle (there is an exception to this, but it proves the rule). This seemed more jarring at the tail end of a lot of intellectual discussion about the issues of gun control. The book also kind of leaves us hanging. One of the thing I liked about "The Lights of Other Days" is that the book projected far enough into the future that you got a very clear grasp of the furthest-reaching impacts of society. This is lacking here.
What I learned:
The issues surrounding gun ownership remain muddied. A scientist who creates an invention of military significance has virtually no chance of keeping the government out of dictating its use.
Rating: 
Summary: PULL THE TRIGGER ON THIS ONE!
Review: Arthur Clarke's book is so preachy that even a strong gun control advocate like myself was grinded down by the final page. Way over the top! The book has all the elements of a winner, but never delivers. He introduces us to several "Einstein" like characters that could be facsinating, however his character development is so bad, that you never get to know these brillant minds. Oh how I was left totally unsatisfied! Yes I did keep reading,but I found myself rapidly skimming the the pages to get to the end of this dreary gun control lecture. I was surprised that this has 4 stars. In terms of this being a science fiction work, forget it, it's not.
Rating: 
Summary: Gripping story, super character development.
Review: As my spouse knows I'm an Arthur C. Clarke fan--though I read little other science fiction--she got this for my birthday, two days after it was published. I've found that many of the books co-written by Clarke have, it seems to me, had his name placed on them simply to sell them, while they contained little if any evidence of his contribution. I've found them at least passable (though I don't learn the science I like learning from Clarke). The "other" author of this one I'd never heard of before. But I may have to read his other work. While I again saw little evidence of Clarke's hand, the book was imaginative, and I couldn't put it down once I'd started it. Lest I reiterate what other reviewers have pointed out, a means is found by some physicists to, in effect, disable conventional weapons and explosives. The author(s) covered what would be likely to happen given that change in "paradigm." It affected politics--dramatically--and other aspects of society too many to cover in a mere review. A president who was a baseball star; a senator who has become an activist dove, etc., etc. The authors are obviously disgusted with what has become an everyday occurence: shootings, bombings, violence as an end in itself. They start each chapter with a selection of examples of that violence, even more pronounced in the ca. 2010 when the story takes place, than today. The subject matter offers an idealistic preview of what could happen if we were to lose that destructive capacity. Of course, given the human capacity to find alternative means to keep us all in suspense, those means are creatively devised. Then the same physicists find still more effective means to stop the violence. The head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is fired as he doesn't adjust accordingly. In the meantime, what was going on took some thought on the authors' part. There was even a touch of romance, though not sap (for which I'd have put the book aside for something readable). And the near-end of the book, when some survivalist type mercenaries abduct the original creator of the "trigger" device, reads nearly like an action film. The one speck of evidence of Clarke I found was in the book's end. I find Clark, and many of his countrymen, to be perceptive of the fickle nature of humankind. The final section of the book had a little of that, though not to the degree of cynicism. Read the book! It's very clever, should I say "idealistic," and will keep you glued to it through the last page.
Rating:
Summary: A horrendous piece of pap.
Review: Being a staunch middle of the roader when it comes to the gun control issue, this book made me want to go out and buy a gun to protect myself from the idiots the author populated this book with. The all benificent government workers who knew what was best for everyone reminded me so much of hillary clinton and her failed socialized medical scheme. All in all this would be a great book for people who believe the lies of the extremist groups like HCI or the Violence Policy Center, everyone else will see through it for the propoganda that it is. The pro-gun side in this book is populated with the evil NAR (yes, a play on that awful American institution the NRA) trying to push guns into the hands of children to settle their school yard scores, instead of fists, people who beleive that when someone cuts into your line, you should open fire to teach them some manners. It was almost comical the cartoonish bad guy's all gun owners were portrayed as being. It was also interesting to note the authors own statistics used against him, he notes that 40,000 people a year are killed by "The Gun", and the marvelous Trigger machine can stop that, he laments the fact that 90,000 a year are then killed by the knife, and that rapes had shot up, but that was the price we as a civilization had to pay to lose the evil influence of "The Gun". <LOL>, not a price I would be willing to pay. I would give it three thumbs down, but alas, I have but two. (there also ought to be a ZERO star option, but I guess that since the binding held up, that rates a 1 star)
Rating:
Summary: Good writing,horrid message
Review: Christians and social conservatives, especially second amendment advocates, will be outraged. Their positions, as well as their own good selves, are viciously caricatured by two professionals who do it with great style and savagery. It would be ridiculous to call a work of fiction dangerous, but this one is certainly unhelpful. Those who most fear the violence of the world around them tend to either support firearms ownership or firearms abolition. Those of either persuasion who read this book will be more polarized than ever. Shame on both Messrs. Clark and Kube-McDowell!
Rating:
Summary: Far too much politics, far too little physics
Review: First of all, it is peculiar to see how readers---among which I include myself---tend to use this space that Amazon.com provides to---rather than write a review---either vent their anger on or explode in praise for the book they have just read and dreaded or loved, accordingly. Unsurprisingly so then, the following will just be an example of the first case above. Once again---I'm talking about the Rama sequels---I have stumbled over the same stone, falling pray to Arthur C. Clarke's name on the cover of a book which, again, for the most part he hasn't written. Isn't it suspicious that most (all?) books written by Clarke together with someone else systematically fail to live up to the standards that Clarke alone got us used to? The Trigger is no exception to the rule. The science behind the new technology depicted takes up a minuscule fraction of the whole book, which for the most part of its more than 600 pages occupies itself with extremely detailed political and governmental issues and analyses around it. For anyone who likes science-fiction first for the science and then for the fiction, this book is bound to turn out terribly long-winded and boring, and certainly hard to finish. The only moment it becomes a so-called page-turner is when one is skipping pages. I would recommend this book to a lawyer or to a political analyst or the like but never to a physicist, who'd rather wait until The Trigger comes to the big screen---if ever---, where it would certainly make up for an entertaining evening.
Rating:
Summary: Another mind-expander from the old master of SF
Review: For those who enjoy stretching their knowledge of science to the limits, here's some serious mind expansion from the all time SF guru, Arthur C. Clarke. "Trigger" is built around wave physics and how much more can happen in that field - someday, sometime. The non-scientifically inclined reader will also enjoy the book's extensive examination of the issues around gun control and ownership - the prime target of the authors. Using the Columbine High shootings as a case in point, they repeatedly engage with the many arguments put forward by proponents of the 2nd Amendment to prevent arms control initiatives. But the scientific jewels hidden along the way are what make this a real delight. First, there is the Trigger - a wave-emitting device that automatically detonates any kind of explosive material, rendering any conventional arms and munitions more dangerous to the user than to their intended victims. The resulting reversion of security forces to pre-gunpowder weapons such as crossbows and maces may sound amusing, but certainly worth more than a passing thought. Then comes the intellectual high point of the book - the concept that everything can be defined in terms of energy and information. This is totally mind blowing - if you take the concept of zooming in and out for more or less detail on a subject and couple it with the Heisenberg Uncertainty principle, that's what the guru is postulating. To quote " Information organizes and differentiates energy". The kick is in the converse - if you can remove information from a subject, you destabilize it - it ceases to exist! From this exquisitely neat hypothesis arises the Jammer - the antithesis of the Trigger - instead of blowing up arms and ammunition, it simply makes them cease to exist! Just these alone would have been more than enough for any Arthur C. Clarke fan - but the authors leave the reader salivating for more right at the end - the discovery of a biological Trigger that can zero in on any specific DNA pattern and vaporise it - the Killer. Overall, a taut thriller-class read with some elegant physics for those so inclined - what more can one ask for ?
Rating:
Summary: A weapon against weapons
Review: I could not put this book down! Just when you think you know where it is headed - it has a twist to it. Do you think you know all sides to gun control? This book really makes you think about all the ramifications, pro and con, in a wonderfully crafted story. What would you do if you had the power to stop weapons? Loved it!
| 
